KO 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



the frames fast, and thus render the removal of 

 frames irritating to the bees, the North Africans 

 fill up every crevice with propolis, which is 

 gathered by them profusely on the cork-oaks 

 and pistachio trees or shrubs, with which North 

 Africa is covered from one end to the other— 

 from Marocco to Tunis. The Syrians, also, 

 propollze a good deal. They have pine-trees all 

 over Lebanon. I brought thirty colonies of 

 those North Africans with me; but, nailing the 

 doors alone, I could not do without protection. 

 Then, again, they are the greatest robbers, in 

 consequence of their better development of the 

 sense of smell, than other bees. I suppose; but 

 they are never molested by other races — at 

 least, I had some sad experience with their rob- 

 bing qualities. My Palestines and Cyprians 

 (nuclei, of course), too weak to defend them- 

 selves, were robbed of their honey, their bees 

 killed, and the hives left empty; and although 

 they did attempt to attack some stronger colo- 

 nies, they were repulsed; but never did I find a 

 Palestine or Cyprian loitering about the North 

 Africans. I came away with the Africans, some 

 having not a single frame of brood, and arrived 

 here in Nice Oct. 18th. They were fed up with 

 honey in the evening. Continuing this for a 

 few weeks they hatched some drones, and some 

 colonies had as many as six frames of brood. 

 They found a hive with four frames yesterday. 

 The Palestines and Cyprians gave up brood- 

 rearing, being placed on the same footing. I 

 was very angry with the Africans for causing 

 the death of several Palestines; but I hope they 

 will pay for their impudence by yielding sur- 

 plus honey, though in Palestine they gave about 

 the same quantity, being placed in the most fa- 

 vorable condition. 



AMOUNT OF HONEY CONSUMED IN APKII- AND IN 

 DECEMBER. 



On page 183 Dr. Miller says bees consume six 

 times as much honey in April as in December. 

 The following will show exactly what a hive of 

 bees did during the year. It brought in 200 lbs. 

 of honey; of this, 1-14 lbs. was extracted, and 56, 

 consequently, was eaten and used up for breed- 

 ing. March 21st it weighed (56 lbs. — bees, hive, 

 and 2() combs; gathered, during orange-fiow, up 

 to April 7. 72 lbs., but evaporated 24 lbs.; thus, 

 April 7th. 31 lbs. was extracted. It continued 

 from Ai)ril 8th till April 21st on orange-bloom, 

 and gathered 79,Vo lbs., but evaporated iilH lbs. 

 Apr. 21st; 41}-^ lbs. was extracted from Apr. 21st 

 to May 27th. The bees ate 14}^ lbs., besides 

 what little honey they gathered. From May 

 27th to June 18th the weight increased 29 lbs. of 

 hemp honey, which was extracted June 18th. 

 July 5th. weight increased 3.5>^ lbs. of hemp 

 honey, and again extracted July 5th. July 30th 

 thp weight increased 40 lbs. of thyme honey. 

 The hive now stood at 115 lbs. The following 

 table will illustrate the matter further: 



July 30 to August 9, decreased 13 lbs. in 10 days. 



August 10, decreased 3 lbs. in 1 day. 



Aug-ust II, decreased 3 lbs. in 1 day. 



August 13 to 13, decreased 3 ll)s. in 2 days. 



August 13 to 30, stationary— lost nothing in 7 days. 



August SO to 35, decreased 1 lb. in 5 days. 



August 2.5 to 39, stationary again— lost nothing. 



August 29 to September 2, lost 1 lb. in 4 days. 



September 3 to 6, decreased 3 lbs. in 4 days. 



September 6 to 13, decreased 1 lb. in 7 days. 



September 1'^ to 34, decreased 3 lbs. in 11 days. 



September 24 to 36, stationary again. 



September 26 to 30. lost 1 lb. in 4 days. 



September 30 to October 6, stationary again. 



October 6 to 16. decreased 3 lbs. in 10 days. 



October 16 to February 9, lost 10'/4 lbs. in. 116 days. 



February 9 to March 16, lost 3 lbs. in 35 da.\s. 



March 16, decreased ^ lb. 



March 16th, orange-blossom began again. 

 I was absent from Oct. 16, 1890. to Feb. 9. 1891, 

 so I made no daily observations. 



THE COST OF HONEY. 



The cost of honey is discussed; but on p. 230 

 Mr. E. Franc(! talks about extracted honey, and 

 he vei'y justly remaiks that it depends on loca- 

 tion, bees, and the apiarist. In Palestine I 

 worked the bees very differently from what 

 any bee-keeper in the United States, perhaps, 

 would do. As I owned no land I had to hire a 

 place to put the bees during the winter; and 

 during the different flows in summer the bees 

 were hauled on camelback from one place to an- 

 other. The usual pay for a camel carrying 8 

 hives is from 50 cts. to lil.CX). The apiary of 100 

 hives is located in only one ijlace during the or- 

 ange-blossom flow. One keeper is sufficient; 

 but during the dry summer months not more 

 than 24 hives are placed in one apiary, thus re- 

 quiring a keeper each. Again, the apiaries be- 

 ing located near honey-plants, water is gener- 

 ally lacking, and has tobe hauled. A keeper 

 is paid from S!6.00 to $8.00 a month; the work- 

 men, for extracting, carrying honey, etc., are 

 paid from 25 to 40 cts. a day, according to their 

 ability. Thus I find for 100 hives: 



Food for bees $ 48.00 



Location 35.60 



Tinkering 10.00 



Bee-papers 6.00 



Postage 3.B0 



Keepers and workers.. 75.60 



Carriage for bees and implements 26.75 



formyself 30.30 



Water for bees 6.00 



Repairing 4.70 



Duty on bees 30.00 



100 days' work 150.00 



$414.45 

 I got 12,000 lbs. of honey, which was sold at 8 

 cts., on an average. But even this does not ex- 

 actly give us the cost per pound for the capital 

 invested yearly. Mortification, and such items, 

 may be viewed vei-y differently, thus leaving 

 the calculation open to everybody to choose ac- 

 cording to his own views. 



SHOULD BEES BE ALLOWED TO MAKE WAX? 



June 1, p. 415, G. de Layens' exi)eriments are 

 given, and Mr. de Layens gives his experience, 

 following which we might suppose it to be a 

 fact that bees really give us more, or at least as 

 much honey, if they have only starters to begin 

 upon, as when they have old di'awn-out combs. 

 Now, the results of my experiments with hun- 

 dreds of hives are as follows: 



1. That a hive having 26 combs built, and 

 ready to be filled when the honey-flow begins, 

 has always proved the best, the honey being at 

 once stored away, and which, as soon as full, 

 those young bees having a surplus secretion of 

 wax to use up can busy themselves in filling up 

 the corners and uneven places which are always 

 found on all extracted- honey combs; for the 

 uncapping-knife occasionally slips too low, thus 

 breaking out a bit of comb, and so leaving plen- 

 ty of chances for the bees to mend. 



2. That a colony given a super full of founda- 

 tion will go to work slowly; and, even if it has 

 stored honey in most of the frames, these new 

 combs are so fragile when handled that it is 

 very dangerous to extract the honey out of 

 them, thus giving a good deal less honey; for 

 the same colony would almost fill the combs 

 again in the same time that the foundation, 

 newly built, is left in the hive. 



3. A colony will surely build its own comb 

 foundation out quicker, provided '.here are not 

 too many frames given at a time, and provided 

 they are always put in between two fully built 

 old combs. 



4. Again, a colony will build too much drone 

 comb if only starters are given; and the drone 

 comb will be filled out with eggs as fast as bees 



